The Man Comes Around | Exodus 2:11-22

The Incredibles is a Pixar computer-animated movie about superheroes—superheroes who have been asked to stop rescuing people. Early in the movie, a TV reporter explains, “Under tremendous public pressure, and the crushing financial burden of an ever mounting series of lawsuits, the government quietly initiated the Superhero Relocation Program. The supers will be granted amnesty from responsibility for past actions, in exchange for the promise to never again resume hero work.”

Amnesty from responsibility for past actions? Well, you see, one time, when Mr. Incredible saved a train-full of passengers from crashing to their death, some passengers sustained minor injuries. So they sued the superhero. Another time, Mr. Incredible saved a man from committing suicide. That man also sued the super.

The world portrayed in the opening of The Incredibles sounds laughable at first. But when you think about the litigious society we live in, it’s not that far-fetched. One would think that everyone in need of rescuing would want to be rescued. One would think ….

According to the Bible, the problem with the world is that human beings have rejected God. The result is a fallen condition in which we are all powerless to rescue ourselves, unable to recognize God’s saving work, and unwilling to receive God’s deliverance.

Being in need of rescue is not the same as deserving to be rescued or wanting to be rescued. What God does to overcome that problem is what Exodus 2:11–25 is about.

One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 

When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. 

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.” 

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

—Exodus 2:11-25

In the first chapter and a half of Exodus, the spotlight has been on several women. We’ve seen how Pharaoh, the mightiest man on earth, was thwarted by faithful and fearless women—the two midwives, a Levite woman and her daughter, and even Pharaoh’s own daughter. This is a frequent pattern in Scripture—that faithful women give birth to and raise faithful sons who rescue and lead God’s people. That pattern started with the first woman, Eve, whose name means life-giver. God promised that one of her sons would crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15).

And that motif surfaces again and again, including here in Exodus 2. Moses, that baby boy who was nurtured and protected by courageous women of faith, has grown into a man. And Exodus 2:11–22 describes what happens when, in the words of Johnny Cash, “the Man comes around.”

I don’t know if you’ve heard many—or any—sermons on Exodus 2. But if you have, there’s a good chance you’ve heard this preached in this way: Moses prematurely—and sinfully—tried to take matters into his own hands. Don’t be like Moses. A few modern commentators take this approach, getting hung up on the violence in this text and feeling the need to condemn Moses for his actions.

But I’m not convinced that’s the point of this passage at all. Rather, Exodus 2:11–22 introduces Moses as a courageous man of faith, providentially positioned by God to deliver God’s people, yet rejected by the ones he is sent to save. And in doing so, this text confronts everyone who hears it with a question: Will you submit to and rely on the Deliverer God supplies?

I want to show you how that question emerges in this narrative.

The Believer

In verse 11, Moses unmistakably identifies himself with the enslaved Hebrew people. “One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.” (Exodus 2:11).

In this one sentence, we are reminded—twice!—that the Hebrews are “his people.” What’s shocking is not simply the fact that Moses is a Hebrew by birth and blood. It’s that Moses willingly chose at this point in his life to identify with the Hebrew people in their affliction.

Moses grew up as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He could have accepted his Egyptian identity and lived out his days in luxury. He could have ignored the misery of the Hebrews and renounced his blood-relatives.

Instead, he went out to his people. He looked on their burdens. And he witnessed violent oppression first hand—“an Egyptian beating a Hebrew.” These are his people! And he made his choice final and irreversible when he killed an Egyptian to rescue that Hebrew slave from death. He burned all his bridges! 

This moment in Moses’ life is called an act of faith in the New Testament, in the Book of Hebrews 11:24–26: “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”

You see, in the ancient world, to identify with a people was to identify with the God or gods of that people. This is captured in the words of Ruth, a Moabite, to her mother-in-law Naomi: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). The choice was not merely ethnic or cultural. It was theological. For Moses to see the Hebrews as his people meant that Moses worshiped the God of the Hebrews and rejected the idols of Egypt. 

But that choice meant reproach and mistreatment instead of pleasures and treasures. Why would Moses make that choice? Because he believed God. That is, he trusted God’s promises.

What promises? What was the reward he was looking forward to? Moses lived by faith in God’s covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Genesis 15:1, God told Abraham: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” Later in that same encounter with God, Genesis 15:13–15 says, “Then the LORD said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.’”

But how did Moses, who was raised in Pharaoh’s house, come to know these promises? His Hebrew mother must have taught him when she was hired by Pharaoh’s daughter to nurse and care for her own son (2:9–10). She must have taught him—not once or twice, but repeatedly—that he was a Hebrew, a descendent of Abraham and an heir of God’s promises. Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. There can be no faith without the Word. And since Hebrews 11 says Moses acted by faith, then he must have heard the Word from his mother.

So this narrative presents Moses as a Hebrew, not in name or blood only, but as one who was living by faith in the God of his fathers, trusting God to keep his covenant promises. And the faith of Moses builds our expectation that he is a man who can do something about Israel’s suffering. That expectation is confirmed as the next few scenes reveal Moses to be a strong and just deliverer.

The Deliverer

Verse 11 begins, “One day, when Moses had grown up.” The word translated “grown up” means “became great or strong or important.” It says something, not just about his age, but about his maturity and stature as a man. According to Acts 7:23, Moses was forty years old at this point. So when you hear “grown up,” don’t picture an 18-year-old Moses, just barely a man. Moses is now a man with gravitas. Stephen highlights this in Acts 7:22 when he says, “And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.” He was a man of action! And the text recounts three separate episodes in which Moses acted as a deliverer.

While some commentators feel the need to condemn Moses, I would argue that Scripture presents Moses as beginning to act by faith as a deliverer, a snake-crusher. That’s the position of such church fathers as Augustine, Tertullian, and Calvin. But ultimately I get that from Scripture. We already saw that Hebrews 11 affirms Moses was acting “by faith.” Listen also to the words of Stephen Acts 7:23 and 25, which says this: “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. … He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand.”

In the first episode (vv. 11–12), Moses delivers a Hebrew slave from death at the hands of an Egyptian. The verb used to describe what Moses did to the Egyptian is the same verb used to describe what the Egyptian was doing to the Hebrew. “He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew,” and, “He struck the Egyptian.” The text does not imply that Moses escalated the violence or used excessive force. But it does demonstrate that Moses was a just man … and a dangerous one.

It’s likely that his Egyptian education included physical training—not like pickle ball and four square, but how to handle weapons and engage in hand to hand combat. John Calvin says, “Let us conclude that Moses did not rashly have recourse to the sword, but that he was armed by God’s command, and, conscious of his legitimate vocation, rightly and judiciously assumed that character which God assigned to him.” As a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses was a legitimate civil authority.

In the second episode (v. 13), Moses again intervenes to rescue a Hebrew, this time it’s from another Hebrew who is striking his companion—his brother! In the first chapters of Genesis, Cain murdered his brother. In the first chapters of Exodus, a man of faith acts as a deliverer and defends his brother.

And in the third episode, Moses is in the land of Midian (which is located east of the Sinai Peninsula, in the northwest corner of modern-day Saudi Arabia). “Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.” (Exodus 2:16–17). There is safety in numbers, so a group of seven women is not necessarily an easy target. But they were no match for this gang of shepherds, until “Moses stood up.”  

Yet again, Moses rises up to rescue and deliver. Surely there was a physical altercation, because it’s hard to imagine a gang of shepherds being intimidated by a lone man shouting verbal warnings and threats. He single-handedly fought off a gang of shepherds!

Here, the language is unmistakable: “Moses stood up and saved them” (v. 17).  And the daughters of Jethro report to their father, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds” (v. 19). Moses is a Deliverer, strong, courageous, just, compassionate. He is a man who trusts God and acts in faith. 

So Moses led God’s people out of slavery and they lived happily ever after! Well, actually, there’s a plot twist. This chapter of Moses’ life comes to a close with Moses living in exile in the distant land of Midian, far removed from the plight of his people.

The Exile

And why was Moses in Midian? Because when Moses came to his own people, they rejected him, but when he stood up as a deliverer in Midian, they welcomed him.

“And he said to the man in the wrong, ‘Why do you strike your companion?’ He answered, ‘Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’” (Exodus 2:13–14). Stephen frames it in Acts 7:25, “He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.”

Contrast this rejection by his own people to the reception Moses received in the foreign land of Midian. After Reuel, the Midianite priest heard about their mystery hero, he blurted out in surprise, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.’ And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah” (v. 20–21). Unlike the Hebrews, Reuel and his family are glad to have a man like Moses around to protect and defend them.

Yet even after Moses began to build a new life in Midian, his exiled status was clearly on his mind. Consider the name he gave to his firstborn son! Chapter 2 can be divided into two parts: Moses as a baby, 2:1–10 and Moses as a deliverer, 2:11–22. Both parts end with the naming of a child. In Exodus 2:10, “[Pharaoh’s daughter] named him Moses, ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’” In Exodus 2:22, Moses has a son, “And he called his name Gershom, for he said, ‘I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.’” (Gershom sounds like the Hebrew word that means sojourner, foreigner, stranger.) Moses was building a life in Midian, but his heart was with his people, captives in Egypt.

The first part of chapter 2 ends with hope and expectation—hope and expectation that grows as Moses proves to be a man of dignity and courage. Everything in Exodus 2 seems to indicate that Moses is providentially positioned to deliver God’s people from slavery in Egypt. But the people of God don’t want a deliverer, and the episode ends with Moses as a fugitive and an outcast, socially and geographically removed from his people.

The Question

And that is why this text confronts everyone who hears it with that pointed question: Will you submit to and rely on the deliverer God supplies? The lingering question in the story is whether the Hebrews will ever recognize and receive Moses as God’s appointed deliverer.

Spoiler: that theme will continue through forty years of wilderness wanderings. “The people grumbled against Moses” is a well-worn phrase in Exodus and Numbers (15:24, 16:2, 17:3; cf. Num. 14, 16). But the real issue is, as Moses reminds them in Exodus 16:8, “Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

And the question for you today is not what you will do with Moses, but what you will do with one greater than Moses—the One whom God has provided to deliver you from bondage to sin and death. “For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses” (Hebrews 3:3). 

Moses left the riches of Pharaoh’s house to join his brothers as slaves; Jesus left the riches of heaven to take on full humanity. Like Moses, Jesus is a man of gravitas, a good and dangerous man, a just and compassionate man. Like Moses, Jesus was rejected by the very people God sent him to redeem. Moses fled as an exile to Midian. Jesus descended to the grave. Jesus is the True and Better Deliverer, sent by God to rescue his people. 

The question is, Are you relying on him today?

The Promise

Maybe you’ve never surrendered your life to Jesus. Or maybe you’ve been unfaithful to him.

Exodus 2 has more than a question for you. It offers you God’s promise of grace. Look at vv. 23–25: “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”

Would Israel reject or accept deliverance from God? The answer depends, not on Israel’s faithfulness, but on God’s! In our world, people tend to assume that anyone who is mistreated is virtuous. But Exodus makes it clear that Israel was guilty of rejecting God. But the mercy of God is greater than all our sin. And God reveals himself as a faithful and merciful God to stubborn and rebellious people.

This is not the first mention of Israel’s slavery and suffering, but it is the first mention of Israel crying out. It doesn’t even say that Israel cried out to God, although that is implied. The focus is simply not on Israel’s efforts to get God’s attention, but on God’s attention to Israel’s miserable plight. 

What did Israel do? Groaned. Cried.

What did God do? There are four verbs here: God heard, remembered, saw, and knew. One commentator says these fall like successive hammer blows. God heard and saw. That assures us that God is aware of all our suffering. But God also remembered and knew, and that assures us God will act. 

When Scripture says that God “remembers,” it means that God is about to act, about to fulfill his covenant promises. It does not mean that God had forgotten and suddenly had his memory jogged. Cf. Gen. 8:1 — “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.” 

God’s covenant commitment to his people never passes from his mind. His mind is never off of his people or his promises. You and I can forget about food in the oven, and when we finally remember and spring into action, it’s too late. God is never late. He doesn’t come rushing in only to find that he waited too long.

God, in his grace, always initiates toward sinners. This is why there was hope for Israel, and why there’s hope for you. Even though Israel rejected Moses—even though it would be decades until Israel finally cried out for help, God had already prepared a deliverer for them

It is pure grace that God takes the initiative to rescue powerless people, overcoming our inability to recognize and unwillingness to receive his deliverance. Before you ever loved God—while you were still sinning—Christ died for you. God has appointed him Ruler and Judge of all. Have you placed your hope in him for freedom from sin? Are you trusting him today for the fulfillment of all God promises you?